A couple of weeks ago we sprang for our big side trip on this visit to Mexico and booked a long day-trip to the Monarch Butterfly Sanctuary in the neighboring Mexican State of Michoacan. We saw a National Geographic program on the Great Migrations a few months ago that featured the long annual journey of the Monarchs from their summer nesting areas in Eastern Canada and the US and so were interested in seeing the colonies in their winter quarters here in Mexico.
Here's what we came to see. The journey takes them something like two years to complete, and it takes several generations of butterflies to complete the migration. How they manage to follow the ancient routes when none of the individuals have ever made the trip before is a mystery, yet they do - always returning to the same area in the mountains of Central Mexico every year. They're here for about 4 months before heading north again with the onset of warm weather in March.
This is how they look on a sunny day...which we unfortunately didn't have. Gleaned this photo from the WWF website since our day was only partly sunny and pretty cold. The colony would just start to take flight when the sun emerged from behind the clouds, then they would head back into the trees and go dormant again when the sun went away. Pretty frustrating since we only got a glimpse of the show that you see here.
The sanctuary covers several hundred acres in the mountains and apparently is home to three distinct colonies of butterflies - each containing hundreds of thousands of individuals. The trail starts at an altitude of 10,500 ft and works its way up a mountain trail for about a mile and a half to an altitude of 11,000 ft. There were horses for rent at the trailhead for those who were too winded to hoof it themselves, but we opted to hike the route and frankly enjoyed the pretty walk in the crisp mountain air as much as we did our stay at the top...shivering in the cold and hoping the colony would actually get airborne.
All in all it was a very enjoyable (if long) day - just a little anti-climactic since the weather didn't really cooperate very well. Too early in the season I guess.
Queretaro
Last week's excursion was to the colonial town of Queretaro, which is the capital of the neighboring Mexican state by the same name. Beautiful place. Although the city has more than 1 million inhabitants the Old Town section where we stayed was as quaint and charming as ever, with lots of pretty squares, parks, fountains and plazas.
A street scene a block or two up from our hotel.
It's another city of monuments. This one is dedicated to La Corregidora - the wife of the town's Mayor in 1810 who apparently was in league with the Insurgentes as they plotted against the Spanish government. When the conspiracy was discovered on the evening of Sept. 15th the Mayor (who was getting his paychecks from the Spanish) locked her up for her own safekeeping, ie to keep her quiet...and to keep those paychecks coming. According to legend, she called a trusted servant to the door and whispered thru the keyhole that he should ride thru the night to warn the conspirators in San Miguel that their plot had been discovered...which he did. Warned in advance of Spanish plans to capture them, they initiated the revolution the next morning and the rest, as they say, is history. If you look closely you can see a keyhole in the center of the monument just below her figure.
Looking at the Church of the Holy Cross and a statue of Father Serra...the Franciscan priest who later established 21 missions in the new territory of California, and who began his career here in this church. Could be a scene from Mallorca, which happens to be where he was from in Spain.
The symbol of the city is this aqueduct, built in the 18th century to bring fresh water from a spring about a mile away into a convent, and later the growing town.
One of many of the beautiful plazas in the city - this one with a statue honoring the man who funded the building of the aqueduct out of his own pocket...and then just donated it to the people of the city. Needless to say he's rather highly regarded to this day.
This is the entrance to one of the andadores, or pedestrian thoroughfares in the center of the old town section. The town was sparkling clean and a pleasure to walk around.
There's not nearly as much tourism in Queretaro as there is in San Miguel - or most other Mexican cities for that matter. We were there on a Sunday afternoon, and the place was full of Mexican families with their kids just enjoying being out and about in an especially beautiful city. We were here for a couple of nights and hope to return for a longer stay on a future visit to Central Mexico.
Our time here is drawing to a close, unfortunately. We'll be in San Miguel until Sunday the 29th when we hop a bus into Mexico City for a few nights before we catch our return flight to Portland on Feb. 1st.
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